


here we are, over and over again (day 31: free day)

by ghostkids



Series: dannymay 2020 prompts [5]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: (ectoguns but still tagging), Autistic Danny Fenton, Autistic Sam Manson, Autistic Tucker Foley, DannyMay 2020 (Danny Phantom), Ghosts, Guns, Harm to Children, Multi, POV Original Character, POV Outsider, Panic, Polyamory, Terror, Threatened Harm to Children, Weapons, does being terrorized by a ghost count as harm? yes, ghost attack, ghost weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:41:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24300751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostkids/pseuds/ghostkids
Summary: now that she knows they exist, jacqui can't stop seeing them everywhere.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Tucker Foley/Sam Manson
Series: dannymay 2020 prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748905
Comments: 2
Kudos: 124





	here we are, over and over again (day 31: free day)

**Author's Note:**

> here's another story with jacqui! this follows 'blood, blood, fallen to the floor' and takes place probably a few months after the events of that story.

now that jacqui's seen them, she can't _unsee_ them. where one goes, the others aren't far behind. ghost attack at the mall and the girl's hiding on the upper level, taking shots at the ghost from above when phantom manages to get her an opening. another ghost attack along main street, jacqui ducking behind a building just in time as the boy holds─a soup thermos? no, _surely_ that’s not right, she _must_ have seen that wrong─and sucks the ghost away with a flash of blue light and an echoing scream.

they’re teammates, that much is clear. the boy and the girl and the ghost. but jacqui can see something more, sometimes. she can’t quite explain how she knows, but she knows the three are more than just teammates. they are _partners_ , with all the weight the word implies. and more than that, they’re _family_ , in some way that jacqui has no words to describe.

every time she sees them, jacqui remembers the day she first saw them, memory like her own personal horror film; blood everywhere, staining the floor, and phantom would never have survived if he were human, jacqui's sure of that. they were willing to risk everything for the ghost, and in turn, he is willing to give his everything for them. family. partners, in more than one sense.

months after the ghost attack that sent phantom’s teammates desperately carrying him to the hospital, jacqui’s gotten used to seeing them everywhere. she still hasn’t gotten used to the ghost attacks, though. amity park was really _supposed_ to be a nice place to live. instead, all jacqui’s ever gotten from this joke of a town is sick (several times), shot at by what seems like every ghost in existence (and some of the ghost hunters, because jack fenton has _terrible_ aim), and now cornered in this dark alley by some ghost she’s impossibly never seen before.

stuck, no hope of escape. she's going to die here, like some failed side character in a bad horror movie, and she's going to die and the ghost _has anna_ .

the ghost has her daughter. her hands are shaking from fear and the last remnants of illness and she’s got the fenton brand lipstick blaster that she bought last week on impulse held tight between her fingers but she’s trembling too much to get the cap off and _anna’s going to die today because she’s too slow, too useless, too weak─_

“nice child, child mine now,” the ghost growls, clutching anna closer. “child food, good.”

“ _no,_ ” she mutters. “ _no, no no no no no please not my baby please..._ ” her fenton brand lipstick blaster finally falls to the ground, forgotten, from her trembling fingers. her heart races. she knows she can’t do anything against a ghost. if she can startle it, though, she might be able to get anna, to run back the way they came. that’s her only chance. that’s _anna’s_ only chance. 

jacqui takes one breath. steadies herself. 

blinks, because out of nowhere, the girl's in front of her, crouched low with an ecto-gun pointed firmly at the ghost. her hands are steady. "so, let’s just set her down gently and then we can talk about this,” the girl is saying, her voice even despite facing down this ghost both taller than her and stronger than her. 

"no," the ghost snarls, flashing fangs longer than anna's head is tall. "mine."

jacqui chokes. swallows the sound. the girl twitches at the noise, eyes behind her purple mask flickering towards jacqui with a quick turn of her head. she doesn’t dare face away from the enemy to console jacqui. jacqui doesn't expect her to.

“silver, green, delta echo papa sierra,” the girl mutters, under her breath. then, louder, she says, “okay, okay. i see what you’re saying here. but trust me, you don’t want her, you really don’t.”

jacqui can barely hear over the roaring in her ears; the ghost, awful creature, is going to eat her daughter and she _can’t stop it_ \- 

everything happens, all at once.

“ _now!_ ” the girl screams. green light explodes from her; she’s fired the ectogun. more green light explodes from behind the ghost, hitting square; phantom or the boy, jacqui thinks, still in shock.

the ghost screams, caught between two ghost hunters with two guns both firing hot ectoplasm, and drops anna. jacqui screams, desperate, as phantom shoots up from below to catch anna, seconds before she hits the ground; phantom _twists_ out of the way, anna tucked neatly into his arms─still screaming─as the boy uncaps that same soup thermos device from before. the ghost, wailing, vanishes in a blur of blue light. 

silence. phantom drifts lower, tail blurring back into legs; his form wavers, and then he’s in front of jacqui, his feet planted firmly on the ground as anna, still in his arms, turns and reaches out for her mother. 

anna leans out into open space, and phantom lets her go, back into jacqui’s arms. she’s bleeding slightly from the scratches running down her arms but she isn't harmed otherwise. she curls into the dip under jacqui's neck, her whimpers turning into snuffles before trailing at last into nothing. 

"she'll need to get those scratches checked," phantom tells jacqui, his voice soft. 

“thank you,” jacqui chokes around the heavy lump in her throat. “ _thank you._ ” her daughter will be okay, and that's all that matters.

“all in a day’s work,” phantom tells her, sending her a soft, sheepish smile. his smile shows the tips of his fangs, but jacqui barely notices.

“i still can’t thank you enough,” jacqui says. she can barely breathe, her heart pounding; she’s so close that she could reach out and touch phantom, if she wanted. she isn’t sure when he got that close. “my daughter would have been _eaten_ if you three hadn’t been around.”

phantom's hand goes to the back of his neck. "well, if it helps you feel any better, he didn't mean he was literally going to eat her. some ghosts. uh. they feed on emotion."

“i- oh.” jacqui isn’t quite sure how to feel about _that_ realization yet.

“yeah.” phantom draws out the word. “not pleasant to think about, is it? that’s why i’m here, to stop that from happening.”

“well, thank you,” jacqui says for the third time, not knowing quite what to say. what _do_ you say to the ghost and his friends who just saved your daughter from certain death? she feels more and more like a broken record. but phantom only smiles again, his eyes crinkling up at the edges.

“all in a day’s work,” he says. “you’re welcome,” he says, and she knows he means both with his entire heart and that he speaks for the three of them.

anna yawns against her collarbone, exhausted from the ordeal; jacqui pats her back, soothing, though her hands shake at the memories flashing through her head again and again like a movie on repeat. 

phantom’s friends step forward, flanking him. “ready to go?” phantom asks them; they both nod wordlessly, and phantom loops his arms into theirs like the final piece of their puzzle. he nods, once, at jacqui, and then they vanish, blurring into thin air right before jacqui’s eyes and leaving her blinking.

jacqui sucks in a breath, lets it out, turns and heads back the way she came, thankful for anna's heavy warmth against her body. she already knows she isn't going to be letting her daughter go for a while. she already knows she isn't going to be sleeping tonight.


End file.
